THE  WEAK  CHUta^ 

AND  THE 

STRONG  MAN 


lOSWORTH 


7    3-3.0 

PRINCETON,  N.  J.  "*^ 


BV  4010 

.B67  1909 

Bosworth 

,  Edward  Increase, 

1861-1927. 

The  weak 

church  and 

the 

a-f-r-nnrr  man 

THE 


*\    >^UL  29  1909     * 


WEAK   CHURCH   AND   THE 
STRONG  MAN 


BY         ^ 
EDWARD    INCREASE    BOSWORTH 

DEAN  OF  OBERLIN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


NEW   YORK 

Student  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 

124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street 

1909 


Copyright,  igog,  by 

The  International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 

Christian  Associations 


The  Claims  and  Opportunities 
of  the   Christian  Ministry 

A    SERIES    OF    PAMPHLETS 
EDITED   BY  JOHN   R.  MOTT 


THE   WEAK   CHURCH   AND   THE 
STRONG   MAN 

By  EDWARD  INCREASE   BOSWORTH 


series  of  pamphlets  on  the 

Claims  and  Opportunities  of  the 
Christian  Ministry 


The   Claims    of    the    Ministry   on    Strong 
Men 
By  George  Angier  Gordon 

The  Right  Sort  of  Men   for  the  Ministry 
By  William  Fraser  McDowell 

The   Modern   Interpretation   of  the  Call 
to  the  Ministry 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Preparation  of  the  Modern  Minister 
By  Walter  William  Moore 

The  Minister  and  His  People 
By  Phillips  Brooks 

The  Minister  and  the  Community 
By  WooDROw  Wilson 

The  Call  of  the  Country  Church 
By  Arthur  Stephen  Hoyt 

The  Weak  Church  and  the  Strong  Man 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Minister  as  Preacher 

By  Charles  Edward  Jefferson 


Letter  from  President  Roosevelt 

On  the  Call  of  the  Nation  for  Able  Men  to 

Lead  the  Forces  of  Christianity 


THE  WEAK  CHURCH  AND  THE 
STRONG  MAN 

I  mean  by  the  weak  church,  the  church  that  has  a 
chance  to  grow  without  doing  detriment  to  any  other 
church.  I  do  not  mean  the  situation  in  which  there 
are  four  or  five  churches  where  there  ought  to  be  but 
one.  That  situation  constitutes  no  "field."  It  con- 
stitutes a  hole  and  a  man  does  not  want  to  get  into 
a  hole.    He  wants  to  get  into  a  field. 

First  picture  the  weak  church  in  its  darkest  colors. 
Its  membership  is  small.  So  is  its  salary.  Its  debt 
is  of  more  respectable  dimensions.  The  building 
is  weather-worn,  the  lightning-rod  broken,  and  the 
weather-vane  on  the  spire  firmly  askew.  The  music 
is  poor,  the  prayer-meetings  are  dreary  and  artificial. 
The  membership  lacks  unity.  What  the  Smiths  want 
the  Joneses  oppose.  The  few  people  who  gather 
for  Sabbath  services  look  about  with  critical  eyes 
and  after  service  report  with  gossipy  tongues  the  re- 
sults of  their  observations.  There  are  stern  souls 
5 


who  watch  suspiciously  for  any  utterance  from  the 
pulpit  that  bears  an  unfamiliar  sound.  They  allow 
their  minister  small  liberty  to  proclaim  ideas  that 
have  brought  him  relief  and  inspiration  in  his  effort 
to  express  historic  religious  verities  in  the  vernacular 
of  modern  thought.  This  is  the  picture  in  its  gloom- 
iest shades.  The  average  ''weak  church"  warrants 
a  far  more  hopeful  description. 

Next,  look  at  the  strong  man.  He  is  a  manly  man, 
not  a  ladies'  man  or  desirous  to  be  ornamental  at  a 
pink  tea.  He  does  not  desire  to  be  coddled  by  any 
one.  He  is  strong  in  friendship,  strong  in  persis- 
tence, strong  in  self-control,  not  angered  by  criti- 
cism. He  is  strong  in  his  grip  on  certain  funda- 
mental truths  and  has  some  power  at  least  to  put 
those  truths  before  people  in  language  that  will  com- 
mand their  attention.  He  has  strong  confidence  in 
the  reality  and  nearness  of  the  spiritual  world. 

What  can  the  strong  man  do  in  the  weak  church? 
It  is  of  no  use  to  send  a  weak  man  to  a  weak  church. 
That  has  been  done  a  great  many  times  and  with 
little  appreciable  result.  But  what  can  the  strong 
man  do  in  the  weak  church?  The  strong  man  can 
win  the  critical  person  in  the  pew  by  the  unfailing 
6 


courtesy  and  invincible  good-will  with  which  he 
thanks  his  critics  for  their  suggestions  and  promises 
to  give  them  careful  consideration.  The  critical  man 
will  soon  be  his  friend. 

He  can  win  the  intolerant  man  in  the  pew.  He 
will  not  talk  about  "new"  and  "old"  theology.  He 
will  state  his  reasons  for  the  view  he  does  not  hold 
more  fairly  and  forcibly  than  can  the  man  in  the 
pew  who  does  hold  it.  The  intolerant  man  will  be 
surprised  by  his  pastor's  fairness  and  will  become 
his  friend,  though  not  his  disciple  it  may  be.  The 
strong  man  will  not  preach  his  doubts.  He  will 
preach  the  things  that  he  believes,  and  the  things 
that  he  believes  to  have  a  vital  bearing  upon  the 
lives  of  men.  He  will  show  lucidly  just  why  he  be- 
lieves them  and  just  what  their  bearing  on  life  is. 

He  will  make  it  evident  to  all  that  he  is  an  honest 
friend,  that  his  profound  ambition  is  to  introduce 
men  into  the  discipleship  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  he  has 
a  level  head  and  a  genius  for  hard  work.  Then  after 
a  time  he  will  find  that  he  can  say  to  his  people  any- 
thing that  his  conscience  dictates,  and  only  on  rare 
occasions  will  he  experience  serious  discomfort  for 
having  done  so. 

7 


What  can  the  strong  man  do  in  the  community 
outside  the  weak  church?  He  can  get  hold  of  the 
boys  and  be  a  true  friend  to  them.  He  will  be  in- 
terested in  their  athletics.  He  can  get  hold  of  the 
young  men;  he  can  get  hold  of  the  business  men.  He 
can  be  influential  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  com- 
munity, in  its  schools,  reading  circles,  and  lecture 
courses.  He  can  set  the  boys  and  girls  toward  col- 
lege. He  can  unobtrusively  give  dignity,  genuine- 
ness, and  tone  to  the  social  life  of  the  community. 
He  can  be  connected  with  every  movement  that 
makes  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  in  the  commu- 
nity. He  can  go  down  into  the  edge  of  the  death 
shadow  and  speak  brave  words  to  dying  men.  He 
will  stand  beside  the  little  grave  in  the  country  ceme- 
tery and  comfort  with  courageous  words  the  bitter 
grief  of  those  who  are  closest  to  it. 

He  can  reach  out  into  the  religious  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. In  a  very  short  time  he  can  unobtrusively  begin 
an  investigation  of  the  religious  life  of  scores  of  men 
in  the  community  and  of  scores  of  families  on  the 
farms  in  the  surrounding  country.  He  can  find  out 
what  their  religious  antecedents  were  and  what  their 
present  religious  outlook  is.  He  will  work  through 
8 


the  members  of  his  church  that  are  the  neighbors  of 
these  people.  In  due  time  he  will  begin  to  bring  his 
personal  influence  to  bear  upon  them  one  by  one. 
He  will  put  his  shoulder  under  their  burdens,  his 
conscience  against  their  sins,  and,  if  he  is  the  strong 
man  I  have  pictured,  he  will  not  have  been  very 
long  in  that  community  before  he  will  see  men  and 
women,  one  after  another,  coming  up  to  the  church 
to  confess  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Lord.  He  will  send 
up  to  the  city  churches  men  trained  in  his  church 
for  service.  The  country  church  is  the  school  in 
which  the  leadership  of  the  city  church  is  developed. 

He  will  stay  with  the  church  three  years,  five 
years,  ten  years,  perhaps  all  his  life.  Perhaps  after 
awhile  he  will  go.  Go  where?  God  knows  to  what 
other  church  he  will  go.  Perhaps  to  another  church 
in  the  condition  in  which  this  one  was  when  he  came 
to  it.  Perhaps  he  will  go  to  some  larger  church. 
This  sentence  from  Charles  Kingsley  stood  for  many 
years  over  my  desk:  "Have  thy  tools  ready.  God 
will  find  thee  work." 

It  is  not  only  true  that  the  strong  man  can  do  a 
great  deal  for  the  weak  church.  The  weak  church 
can  do  a  great  deal  for  the  strong  man.  After  he 
9 


has  been  its  pastor,  if  necessary  all  his  life,  he  will 
find  that  his  own  life  is  enlarged.  In  the  process 
of  making  the  weak  church  strong  he  has  gained 
strength  himself.  What  enlarges  the  life  of  a  man 
is  to  enter  into  the  life  of  other  men  with  sympathy 
and  help.  He  will  find  that  he  has  enlarged  himself 
intellectually.  It  will  tax  him  to  put  these  great 
truths  effectively  before  the  people.  Many  of  the 
people  have  keen  minds  and  will  eagerly  take  the 
best  he  can  give  them.  It  is  an  intellectual  triumph 
of  no  mean  order,  so  to  present  a  truth  as  to  make 
it  grip  less  active  minds.  At  the  end  of  life,  when  he 
draws  near  to  the  great  quietness  and  looks  back 
across  the  years,  able  to  see  with  clearer  vision  the 
things  that  have  been  elemental  and  fundamental  in 
his  life,  he  will  experience  great  satisfactions  such  as 
come  to  few  other  men.  If  you  question  the  men 
who,  in  their  later  life  have  been  pastors  of  city 
churches  but  who  in  early  life  preached  in  small 
communities,  you  will,  over  and  over  again,  find 
them  citing  as  the  memory  that  gives  them  most 
satisfaction  something  that  happened  in  the  early 
years  in  the  small  church.  One  Sunday  evening  a 
number  of  young  ministers  asked  a  distinguished 

10 


Methodist  bishop  what  it  was  in  his  life,  the  memory 
of  which  gave  him  most  satisfaction.  He  had  been 
preacher,  college  president,  bishop.  He  thought  a 
moment  and  then  told  them  of  an  experience  in  his 
first  small  parish  and  its  outcome  in  the  life  of  a 
single  family  in  later  years. 

The  weak  church  appeals  to  the  strong  man  to 
come  to  it  in  the  power  of  God  and  make  it,  by  God's 
grace,  a  strong  church.  Rather  it  is  Jesus  Christ 
who  makes  the  appeal,  for  what  is  done  to  one  of 
these  least  is  done  to  Him. 


II 


